Ship-protector.



T. A. DALTON.

SHIP PROTECTOR.

APPLICATION HLED'JULY as. 1911.

Patented July 2, 1918.

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SHIP PROTECTOR.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 26.1911.

Patented uly 2, 1918.

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T. A.' DALTON.

SHIP PROTECTOR.

1 APPLICATION FILED JULY 26. I91?- 3 suns-sum a.

lllllllIi' THOMAS A. DALTON, 0F HAZLETON, PENNSYLVAI N IA.

SHIP-PROTECTOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jul 2, 1918.

Application filed July 26, 1917. Serial N 0. 183,001.

To all whom it may concern:

Hazleton, in the county of Luzerne and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ship- Protectors; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in ship protectors.

One object of the inventlon is to provide a torpedo guard for shipswhich may be moved out of the water when not in use to prevent the speed of the ship from being lessened, and which when in its raised position will serve in the capacity of a shield for protecting the ship against shell fire.

Another object of the invention is to provide a torpedo guard for ships which is normally held out of the water and which is automatically released and lowered upon the approach of a submarine, torpedo, or

the like.

A further object of the invention is to provide a torpedo guard for ships which is movable in and out of the water and which is provided with supporting means for bolding the guard away from the sides of the ship when in use and permitting the guard to be swung close to the sides of the ship when its raised position to not interfere withltheloading and unloading of the ship. A further object of the invention is to provide a torpedo guard for ships which is made in sections so that in case one section becomes damaged it may be quickly and easily repaired. a v

A still further object of the invention is 4 to generally improve upon devices of this class by'the provision of a comparatively simple, strong, durable and inexpensive construction, one which will be efficient and reliable'in operation and well adapted to the purpose forwhich it is designed.

With these other objects in view, the invention consists of'certain novel features of construction and the combination and arrangement ofparts as will be hereinafter fully described and claimed.

' Inv the accompanying drawings forming apart of the 'a plication and in which similar reference c aracters designate like parts throughout the several views,

Figure 1 is a side view of a ship showing a device constructed in accordance with this invention applied thereto and in raised position.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged face view of a portion of the guard.

Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken on the plane indicated by the line 33 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged transverse sectional view through a portion of the ship illustrating the device applied thereto and in raised position.

Fin. 5 is an enlarged face view of a portion of the guard, showing a portion of the side of the ship and the mechanism connected to the guard for raising the some out of the water.

Fig. 6 is a detail sectional view of a portion of the device.

Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken substantially on the line 7-7 of Fig. 6 and Fig. 8 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the mechanism for raising and holding the guard out of the water, and then automatically releasing the same and lowering it into the water.

In the embodiment illustrated the letter A designates a conventional form of ship. Revolubly mounted in suitable bearings 1 on each side of the ship A isa Windlass shaft 2 upon which is fixed in any convenient manner aplurality of winding drums or windlasses 3. Arranged adjacent the windlasses 3 and securely fastened to the ship are brackets 4 having mounted thereon pulleys 5 and having lugs 6 projecting outwardly therefrom. The purpose of these parts is to be hereinafter more fully described.

The reference numeral 7 designates as a whole a guard or protector for the side of the ship. This guard or protector 7extends substantially the entire length of the ship and is made up of comparatively narrow strips 8 of steel or the like. The guard is preferably made in sections so that 1n case a portion of it is damaged, only the section affected may require repair. These sections are shown as having their adjacent ends connected by transverse bars 9 of flat material, suitable bolts being passed through the ends of the various strips which comprise the sections and the bars.

Screwed to the guard 7 and disposed on the inner side orback face of the same is a plurality of bars 10, the sides of said bars adjacent the guard ibeing" flat,iwhile' their othersides are concave as shown clearly by Fig. 7 of the drawings to properly receive and be secured to, tubular members11. I The lower ends' of these members 11 are closed 1 while their upper ends are provided with I of are rods 12. The upper ends of the rodsI 12 are pivotally connected to the lugs 6 car ried by the brackets' l, while their lower ends 1 sides of the Ship V V e v nected at its upper-edgeby cables 19wh1ch apertures. Disposed slidable within the members 11 and extending through the aforesaid apertures in the upper ends there are provided with a plurality of collars 13, said collars fitting rather snugly wlthin the tubular ;members' llito prevent the rods 12 I e from wabbling in the same.

The-members 11 are rovided with; slots 14 whichextend longitudinally of the meme bers "from the upper endsthereof to a point near their lower en Through these slots 14 extend lugs 15 1ich are secured to the rods 12 and which have pivotal connection with linklinembers 16, the inner ends of whichu-are.connected to blocks 17 which are slidably mounted in From the above braces for holding the guardiaway from the side of the. ship when the blocks 17 are in their lowermost positions in the guide waysl8. '7

, Numerous ways may be employed for operating' the Windlass shaft 2 and raising the guard outiof the water, the guard being conare woundiaround the winding drums or windlasses 3. Themeans here shown eon-. sists of a plurality of electric. motors 2 0 hav ingpinions 21 fixed .upon the one end of their shafts which pinions meshwith gear 'wheels 22 fixed to thewindlass shaft 2. It 11s to be here noted and understood that al-x though two motors are shown and described,

yet this number may be increased anddiminished as is found to "be the 'most expedient =in;the particular case. In Fig. 8 of the -drawings,1where the; invention is as, r grammatically illustrated only one'motor: is 55.

V relatively fixed clutch member. This clutch member 26 is positioned for engagement by a rotatable clutchmember 27 carriedslid guide ways 18 to the:

description, it 7 will be seen' th'at the. guardor protector 7 is movable" in and: out of the water, the tubular mem bersll sliding upon the rods 12 until their "upper ends engage theuppermost shoulder 13. :The links 16 act inthe capacity of ably upon the shaft of the motor 20. A spring 28' surroundingthe motor shaft and engaging the clutch member 27 holds the 'latter normally "but yieldably in engagement with the clutch member 26 so that when them motorhas been operated to raise the torpedoi position by V the clutch.

In order to automatically releaseythe means for holding the guard'in its raised guard, the latterwill be locked in itsraised position upon the approach of a torpedo, submarine or the "like, a microphone 29,.is

employed In the present instance, theImi crophone is disposed. in theside of theship in any suitable manner andis provided withan indicating pointer 30 having a conduct; 1 ing member 31 which bridges a pairiof com tacts 32 carried by a portion. of the casing I of the microphone'when themicrophone is energized and the pointeris moved out of its normal position. Thev contacts 32fare connected by conductors in a circuit 33 which 7 7 includes a battery 34 anda solenoid 35. V

Slidable within the solenoid 35 15a core i 36,.the outer end of which is' connected tothe blade 37 of a switch 3S'arranged ina-circuit 39 having afbattery. 40 anda solenoid T 11 therein. The solenoid 41 hasafcore &2 which. i

is connected to a leverl3 fulcrumed' inter mediate ofiits ends and hasoneiend nengagement with. the slidable clutch;.member 5 27 of Lthemotor shaft. When thesolen'oid 41 is energized and the core 4 2" drawn i t the same, the lever 43*will be moved so a V p to move the clutch member 27 out ofengagement with. the clutch member 26. l Themeans.

K for holdingthe guard in its raised position thus being released, the guard will slide by gravity into the water, and when in thislow-J ered positionyit; will protect the ship from being struck bytorpedoes, the: links 16 holdingv the guard a considerable distance from theside of the ship so that if the torpedo is the exploding willtakeplaceatsuch aedis-z damage to the same. I.

iexplodedwhelllit contacts withithe ilardy 1110 x tfln'ce from the ship as ot; cause any, v

Assuming that the guardisaraised} and the microphone29 is adjustedsd as; to,operate when a torpedo or submarineWapproaches within a. predetermined distance of the ship, upon thegapproach" of such a.

torpedo or submarine the contacts 3 ear-:QQ

ried by the pointer of the microphone will engage the contact 32 and'close. theflcir'cuit through the solenoid 35, this beeomingenergi zed will draw thisct re36 inwardly and thus closed, said solenoid will be energized, and this will move the movable. clutch member 27 out of engagement with; the ,fixed member 26 and allow-the guard to he released whence it will drop by; gravity into thewater; e

' move the switch plate 37 into its closed fpo V sition. The circuit of the solenoid 41 being When it is desired to raise the guard out of the water, the switch in the circuit 23 is closed and the motor will be caused to rotate, it being understood that the clutch member 27 is held out of enga ement with the clutch member 26 while t is is being done. A suitable latch 44 is employed to do this. This latch is to be engaged with the clutch member 27 when it is in its innermost position and prevents the spring 28 from forcing it into engagement with the member 26.

When the ship is docked and being loaded or unloaded it is preferable to have the guard 7 disposed rather close to the side of the ship so in order to provide for this, the

manner in which the links 16 have their inner ends mounted in slide ways is devised. To cause the guard to move into close proximity with the side of the ship, the ears 45 carried by the blocks 17 are engaged by hooked rods or the like and the blocks are moved upwardly in the slide ways 18. Obviously, this may be done in other Ways.

It is to be understood that other means for employing microphones may be used. It may be operatively connected to the means for holding the guard in its raised position in various ways, or it may even have no physical connection, with the mechanism but may be worn by a person who manually releases the holding means when he detects a torpedo or submarine approaching the vessel.

From the foregoing description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, the construction, use and operation of the device will be readily understood without a more extended explanation.

As various changes in form, proportion, and in the minor details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of this invention, it is to be understood that I do not wish to be limited to the construction herein shown and described other than as claimed.

I claim:

1. The combination with a ship; of a plurality of rods pivotally mounted at their upper ends to the side of the ship, a protector slidable upon said rods and movable in and out of the water, braces disposed between the lower ends of said rods and the side of the ship to hold said lower ends of said rods spaced from the latter, the outer ends of said braces being pivotally connected to said rods and their other ends slidably and pivotally connected to the side of the ship to permit them to fold into a vertical position to allow the protector to swing close to the side of said ship and means for raising said protector out of the water and holding it in raised position.

2. The combination with a ship; of a plurality of rods mounted upon the side of the ship, a protector movable into and out of the water, a plurality of tubular members extending across said protector and slidable on said rods, and means for raising said protector out of the water and holding it in raised position.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of a subscribing witness.

THOMAS A. DALTON. Witness:

W. R. BAUM.

copies of this patent may be obtained for flve cents each, by addressing the "Commissioner 0! Patents Washington, I). 0. 

